Timmy the Kid: ‘Go out there with a gunslinger mentality’ (Giants, Padres, Lincecum)

In many ways, we saw the old Tim Lincecum Saturday night. Not just with his results (the four walks notwithstanding) and pitch count (121) but with his confidence (sky high).

“My dad always said, ‘Go out there with a gunslinger mentality,’ ” Lincecum said long after he gave up three hits in eight innings. “As a gunslinger, you’re probably saying, ‘Hey, I’m going to kill this guy or else I’m dead.’ It’s not a life or death situation, but you have that confidence I’m going to come out of this OK.”

Boy, did he.

It’s the first time Timmy the Kid tossed eight innings since Sept. 9. His fastball was 88, 89, 90. His changeup didn’t have the usual dive, forcing him to throw it lower in the zone. And he didn’t throw many sliders until later innings.

But he sure had confidence. He sure got big outs. He sure got a lot of defensive help from left fielder Melky Cabrera and other defenders.

“It doesn’t matter what you go out there with. It’s having that mental edge and knowing you’re going to be the guy, knowing you’re going to get out of a bad situation,” said Lincecum, noting he sometimes gets through rough times by recalling how he got through rough times in the past.

“It makes it not such a panic situation. What was my mindset? You try to erase the emotions and try to treat this as if I’m a robot. The only emotions you should have out there is a little bit of anger, like you got a chip on your shoulder. You kind of get a little pissed off. Not at a person or situation, just rising to the occasion.”

The two-time Cy Young Award winner realizes fans expect gems every game, and he admitted he’s no different when watching other sports.

“That just goes with baseball,” he said. “As a fan, I’m the same kind of way watching a football game. You get in that fan perspective where you want that person to play at their level. That’s the same thing with us. We want to play at our level. We’re just trying to take that out of the picture and try not to think about what everybody else is thinking.”

By the way, Lincecum admitted peaking up at the board, not necessarily to see the radar reading but the pitch count.

He doesn’t really need anyone or anything telling him how hard he throws.

“Sometimes that 90 is going to look 95, and sometimes it’s going to look 85,” he said. “It’s all a matter of how the batters see it.”